RETHINKING SOMES
urban development masterplan
RETHINKING SOMEȘ in 4 steps
RE_CONNECT, RE_APPROPRIATE, RE_GENERATE, RESTORE
Premises
Someș today denies proximity, it separates and creates distance between public spaces and inhabitants. In order to change this paradigm, we need to understand what are the challenges that need to be addressed to enhance and strengthen the River’s presence in the city and furthermore, how can these challenges be addressed?
There is a great unbalance between the Eastern part of the river and the Western part in terms of green infrastructure and public facilities.
The river generates a microclimate that is specific to the city of Cluj with accentuated haziness, persistent mist, moisture, fresh air currents. But it also raises ecological issues, like pollution (water, soil) and lack of biodiversity.
Thesis
Someș could be regarded as a City Waterfront or a Natural River. We advocate for a Natural River in its urban future development. We envisage a fair approach in which the river becomes inclusive not only towards the city and its inhabitants but to itself as well. The space of the River is a ‘social space’, a place for many everyday activities, a city part that can especially contribute to give a clear structure to the whole city and metropolis.
We look for tools and methods involving all actors in the design process, as to avoid generating a top-down development that will not address all challenges raised by the complex nature of such project.
RE_CONNECT
Visual connection of the green areas / Access to the river / Slow mobility and public transport
Creating the conditions for Someș to act as the carrying structure for an interconnected urban development. Designed as a free and open space that allows inhabitants to experience and to be active, a place where everyone is in public, a mirror of the complexity of contemporary society.
RE_APPROPRIATE
Participative design process / Design 4 everybody
Investing area with human soft activities such as: fishing, urban agriculture, bird watching, alongside more established ways of using the riverside. Creating high quality spaces for multiple civic functions through flexible projects that people can appropriate and transform.
Repositioning the river on the mental map of the inhabitants, uprooting territorial stigma of certain areas, create a sense of belonging.
RE_GENERATE
Enhancing quality of living / Raising property value / Restoring cultural value / Altering monofunctional areas
Anticipating possible futures and improving the relation between people and space, Someș as a continues centrality.
RESTORE
Decontamination and greening / Restoring the river towards a more natural state / Climate change adaptation
Improve the natural functions of the river. An attractive water environment for people and wildlife with economic and environmental benefits.
PROGRAM: develop a new relationship between the city of Cluj and the Somes river running through it
STATUS: competition 3rd prize
LOCATION: Cluj, RO
YEAR: 2017
CO-AUTHORS: Măgeruşan Adriana, Miclăuş Marius, Felvinczi Anamaria, Constantinescu Teodora
COLLABORATORS ARCHITECTURE: Nistor Alexandru, Susan Roxana, Pop Vlad, Knall Arnold, Fülöp Csenge, Apahidean Dragoş
COLLABORATORS SPECIALISTS: Horhat Ana – landscaping, Şoflete Marius – structures